ARTICLES

Human rights defenders in Georgia are
very concerned over the pending amendment to the Law on Police. If
passed into the law, the amendment will authorize an ordinary policeman
to stop any person at any time in the street and conduct an
“examination on the surface of one’s cloths” based solely on the
policeman’s “reasonable doubt” that a citizen might have committed a
crime. Moreover, the amendment further eliminates the need for
obtaining a prior authorization to conduct a comprehensive search upon
an individual and lowers a legal threshold triggering the right for
such a search.

One more family abandoned Reversed
Khevsureti region (the mountainous region in Eastern Georgia) and took
the Shatili-Tbilisi mini-bus the day before yesterday. Niko Ardoteli
took two children of the Shetekauris from the village of Khonischala
with his three children to the downland. Our host in Shatili told us:
“If Niko’s family also abandons Ardoti village that means the village
will get uninhabited.” Khevsureti region is getting uninhabited. Two
families remained in Mutso village; nobody lives in Archilo; nobody
will remain in Khakhabo village this winter either.

It has been a year after the
suspicious death of Elguja Akhalaia the resident of Chkhorotskhu
district. There are several unofficial versions about the death of the
young man. The relatives state he was killed and thrown into the river.

IDP couple from the Kodori Valley, Ludmila Dotsenko and Vitali Khuroshvili, has been living in an abandoned building in Tbilisi for two months already. In addition to their poverty the ministry of IDPs from the occupied territories, accommodation and refugees of Georgia refused to grant accommodation or any other financial allowance to them after two-year expectation.

740 000 GEL is paid to about 80
yard-keepers and dustmen per year to clean Gori. In parallel to it, the
Gori municipal board requires 1, 10 GEL for one square meter from
private and legal entities for cleaning. Despite such a huge income,
the town and particularly the villages are full of rubbish. In addition
to that, the yard-keepers and dustmen protest unpaid salaries of August
which were due to August 25.

On September 16, the city court
renewed the trial of the students who were wounded in front of the
technical university. The young people in pre-trial detention – Zaza
Shavliashvili, Vasil Giguashvili, Nika Beruashvil, Roland
Nikolozashvili and Saba Mghvdeladze – were initially found victims in
the incident but later they were charged for the hooliganism by the
prosecutor’s office.

In 2006, the parliament of Georgia
adopted a new law on “Military Reserve Service” based on which the
defense ministry of Georgia, more precisely the National Guardia
started training of reservists first in the history of independent
Georgia.

President Saakashvili visited Rustavi
a week ago and attended the re-opening ceremony of the Georgian-Italian
leather enterprise which now “started working at full speed;” the
enterprise was opened a year ago. At least, the national TV-Channels
spread similar information. The workers said all machines were already
working in the factory and they cannot understand why the president
visited the enterprise.

They were standing...They were standing in Vake district, in Chavchavadze Avenue in front of
the fifth building of the Tbilisi State University and on the other
side of the street near the underground passage in front of the shops.

Five students of the Technical
University of Georgia have been in Gldani prison # 8 for eight months
already. Zaza Shavliashvili, Vasil Giguashvili, Nika Beruashvili,
Roland Nikolozashvili and Saba Mghvdeladze are victims and accused in
one case. Their wounds have after-affect and now their health
conditions are grave. Despite that, the prosecutor’s office does not
agree to sign plea-agreement with the young people and tries to punish
them strictly.

The International Secretariat of OMCT appeals to the high-ranking officials of the government of Georgia regarding the physical assault of Vakhtang Maisaia who was arrested for espionage. They appeal to the president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, secretary of the Security Council of Georgia Eka Tkeshelashvili, the minister of internal affairs Vano Merabishvili, the minister of justice of Georgia Zurab Adeishvili, the chairman of the human rights committee of the parliament of Georgia Giorgi Arsenishvili and the public defender of Georgia Giorgi Tughushi. The OMCT learned about the incident from the member of the OMCT SOS network in Georgia the Human Rights Center.

The temperature up to 40 Celsius! Drinking water is supplied only once
in two days for one and half an hour! The Kutaisi residents had to
spend the summer days in similar conditions. The promise of the
government to supply the second capital of the country with drinking
water during 24 hours a day was not kept and Kutaisi still complains
about it.

Bailiffs will start working in public
schools of Ozurgeti district from January of 2011. The ministry of
education and science states that the only function of the bailiffs at
schools will be care for the security of pupils and prevention of
violence. However, people often say that the ministry is going to
establish a police regime in public schools and teachers do not like to
be controlled everywhere.

On September 8th, the Secretary General of OSCE, Marc Perrin de
Brichambaut made an official visit to Georgia. After the visit, the
official web site of OSCE spread the official statement of Secretary
General.

By the request of Vera Kobalia’s department, Ozurgeti municipality
board yielded the labored property to Socar Georgia Gas. As the
economics expert, David Narmania states, the Chamber of Control should
raise the responsibility of the head of the municipality board.
According to the expert of local government, Otar Konjaria, the free
yielding of the gas pipes belonging to Ozurgeti municipality ownership
is unacceptable.

The rector of Iakob Gogebashvili
Telavi State University George Gotsiridze resigned. The academic
council of university rendered his request on September the 8th.
Gotsiridze states that he’s tired of working at this post. According to
Human Rights Center, George Gotsiridze was called to the Ministry of
Education and Science a day before the resignation that resulted in
this decision.

Huge construction of Ruisi-Igoeti
freeway is underway. This project is continuation of the construction
which started in 2006 and which is called “auto-ban”. Although only
60-70 kilometers of the auto-ban was built so far, the experts see
serious faults in it and are doubtful about the construction of tunnels
and Estacada.

The UN General Assembly adopted
resolution on the right of return for all IDPs and their descendants
from Georgian breakaway regions, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
regardless their ethnicity, reports the official web-site of UN.